Cavendish leads Tirreno-Adriatico

British cyclist Mark Cavendish of Omega Pharma-Quick Step cheers on the podium after winning the first stage of Tirreno-Adriatico race from Donoratico to San Vincenzo, Italy, on Wednesday.

Photo: EPA

British sprinter Mark Cavendish leads the Tirreno-Adriatico after his Omega Pharma-Quick Step team won a time trial to open the weeklong cycling race on Wednesday.

Omega clocked 20 minutes, 13 seconds over the flat 18.5km route from Donoratico to San Vincenzo.

It was an identical start from last year, when Cavendish also took the lead with an Omega win.

“The team is stronger than last year,” Cavendish said.

“We went fast, we went hard, but the faster you go in the team time trial the easier it feels. We were really smooth with the pace the whole way. You almost feel like you didn’t go fast enough when it’s like that,” he added.

One of the greatest sprinters of all time, Cavendish has had a slow start to this season, with his only individual win coming in a stage of the Tour of Algarve last month.

Three-time time trial world champion Tony Martin was again the main engine behind Omega’s success, which should benefit Michal Kwiatkowski and Rigoberto Uran, who are aiming for the overall win.

“We tested the route several times, and nobody had a big ego and wanted to stand out,” Cavendish said. “Obviously Tony is very strong at time trialing, but nobody — not even him — wanted to do too much. We all worked together as well as possible and it went great.”